#EWWRAwards finalists || Business • Fundación real dreams

The EWWR Awards finalists have been announced! In each category the Jury has selected their top 3 finalists. The winners will be revealed on 22 May in Brussels during the EWWR Awards Ceremony. To find out more about the finalists, their initiative and commitment for waste reduction, we have caught up with them for a short interview.

1 • What is your action “Digital devices reuse” about?

During the EWWR 2017, the project donalo.org developed by Fundación real dreams in collaboration with eReuse, CTecno and La Nau, established collection points for digital devices in 20 companies, mostly public administration and technology companies in Catalonia. This has led to the collection of 2,339 kilograms of electronics, which was then prepared for reuse and donated to various NGOs. To ensure the traceability of the donated digital items, the eReuse.org tool was used. This allowed us to monitor the geographical places, reuse agents and the final receivers of the recycled objects. It also allowed us to be accountable for our donors and also give them environment and social indicators for their Corporate Social Responsibility. Despite the fact that our action was executed on a small scale, it offers a model that can be replicated in other European locations. The model that has a positive impact on three main aspects: environmental protection; stimulation of local economy (since refurbishment of 40 devices and re-selling them to NGOs at subsidized prizes allows generating jobs; social aspect that addresses the NGOs digital gap.

2 • How did you come across this idea?

The main idea was to fight against the ironic context in which we live nowadays: on the one hand, we have an unequal access to digital devices, and on the other hand, we have a huge issue with electronic waste. Via our platform we receive a lot of requests for computers from NGOs, which we cannot always meet. For this reason, we decided to implement the action of collecting digital devices. The idea was to offer to companies, especially those involved in tech, the possibility to donate their computers with the guarantee that they will be recycled at the end life.

3 • Why is waste reduction important for your organisation?

Between 2005 and 2015 a total of 3,314 million digital devices have been sold worldwide but only a small fraction of these devices and their components have an extended lifespan in Europe by repair, upgrade or reuse. Seeing this global problem, we aim to transform the linear supply chain into loops that retain more value for digital devices. We understand that circularity critically depends on the traceability of devices and cooperation among stakeholders. For this reason, we try to obtain used PCs from underutilized resources that are destined to be wasted. Our work is underlined by a correct use of the 3Rs rule in order to maximize the products life and minimize the generation of waste.